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California · Nonprofit

Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars

Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars (California) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,109,646 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($420,500). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$334k
Funders on record
13
Grants received
$1.1M
Net assets
$145k
9/13 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 71%
01What it does

What Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars does

Mission

Guides academically motivated economically disadvantaged high school students interested in pursuing a career in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Educational payments made for direct stipends to students, fees for student activities such as museum admissions, classroom instruction, SAT and other test trainings, student material such as books and meals during instruction and field trip.

    $228,287 spent
    94% of program spending
  2. High functioning laptops are provided to students to help meet program requirements and prepare for college.

    $9,296 spent
    4% of program spending
  3. Provide various programs to help with the education of the students as well as assist with college preparation.

    $5,365 spent
    2% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $242,948.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($203k) Expenses 100 ($216k) Net assets 100 ($222k)2019 Revenue 55 ($112k) Expenses 94 ($203k) Net assets 59 ($131k)2021 Revenue 90 ($183k) Expenses 111 ($240k) Net assets 35 ($78k)2022 Revenue 170 ($346k) Expenses 108 ($233k) Net assets 86 ($191k)2023 Revenue 103 ($209k) Expenses 131 ($283k) Net assets 53 ($117k)2024 Revenue 137 ($278k) Expenses 118 ($255k) Net assets 63 ($140k)2025 Revenue 164 ($334k) Expenses 152 ($329k) Net assets 66 ($145k)
2018201920212022202320242025
Revenue (164)Expenses (152)Net assets (66)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $98k to $191k (+94%).

$222k
$131k
$98k
$191k
$117k
$142k
$156k
2018201920212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2018
2019
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 5% · 2022 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

100% of Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,946 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

−$13k
’18
−$91k
’19
−$57k
’21
$113k
’22
−$74k
’23
$24k
’24
$5k
’25
5.7
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Board chair

Nicholas Richards

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

2018201920212022202320242025
Listed1010108876
Joined·+0·+4+0+3+1
No longer listed·0·6042
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $35k → $147k.

5 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

47% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars.

38%
largest funder
81%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 40% · 2019 100% · 2020 51% · 2021 42% · 2022 67% · 2023 68% — diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

63% of Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars draws 67% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 4 states in all.

WI
MA
CA
DE

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $516k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars has grown faster than half of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin1% · below the median
Months of reserve5.7mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)7% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In California

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

74% of spending goes to programs.

Program 74%Management 21%Fundraising 5%

Governance

0
board members
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

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Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars?
Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars (California) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,109,646 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($420,500). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars have?
IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $1,109,646 in grants to Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars?
ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $420,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

Play a game about who funds Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 13 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing